


Shelter in Place

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [94]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki (Marvel), Avenger Reader (Marvel), F/M, Gen, Literal Sleeping Together, Post-Mission, Pre-Relationship, Reader-Insert, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24955138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: On a mission with Loki, you have to book a last-minute room in a safe house and, naturally, there’s only one bed.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [94]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 14
Kudos: 264





	Shelter in Place

It is a truth universally acknowledged that two special agents in need of a safe place to hide out for the night must be in want of a single crappy motel room with just one bed. Or something like that. 

The mission was over. You’d gotten in and out, collected the intel you needed, raised very few alarms, had to kill very few bad guys, and now you were just waiting on an ill-timed exfiltration via quinjet. Things had gone south somewhere with Bucky and Steve, so the facilities were...busy, at the moment. You’d called your handler, and she’d just given you a set of coordinates to a kind of safe house in the area: a place where you and Loki could rest and keep your heads down while you waited for your turn to get home. And of course the safe house was more like a seedy motel in the countryside that only accepted cash.

The guy at the front desk had barely even looked up from his phone when he checked you in (under assumed names, of course—safe house or not, you had to be careful) and pushed a rusty old key towards you. A single key. Because, even though this place was in the middle of nowhere, they were almost completely booked up.

“What, are the rest of your rooms closed for fumigation or something?” It was hardly your wittiest joke, but you were hardly in top form. The guy might have cracked a sarcastic half-smile at you, but he still didn’t look up. Maybe he didn’t speak English. Whatever. You grabbed the key and went off in search of your room. Loki followed after you. He had yet to say a word. He had to be exhausted—or maybe in shock at the state of this place.

When you got there, you nearly had to force the door open. It was stuck, like maybe the wood had swelled up over time. But it was (kind of) a hotel room. There was a lock, a shower, and a bed. _A_ bed. A single, solitary bed. 

You dropped your bag on the floor near the foot of the bed and tried not to groan. You’d both been awake for close to three days straight now. There was no way that either of you was going to be gallant enough to sleep on the floor or in the bathtub while the other got the bed. At least, _you_ weren’t. And Loki looked dead on his feet. You still didn’t quite understand how his magic worked, but he’d been using it _hard_ this week, and it pretty clearly drained him. He dropped his own bag on the other side of the bed and sank down onto the mattress.

“We can be adults and share the bed, right?” It would have been smarter not to say anything about it at all. Maybe there was just something about standing there and looking down at Loki on the bed, stretched out and vulnerable, that put you off-balance. He cracked his eyes open just once, and just barely, and though he didn’t look at you for very long, the weight of his half-glare still made you want to shrink away from him.

“I’m not sleeping on the floor.”

Okay. Good. He didn’t recoil in horror from the idea of sharing a mattress with you. The two of you weren’t best friends or anything, but you liked him well enough. And maybe he liked you alright? You hadn’t been at each other’s throats all week and even when you were back in the Tower, sometimes you’d hang out. Maybe you’d never actually slept in such close proximity to each other, but there was a first time for everything. There had been, after all, a time when you’d never hung out with each other. A time when you’d never spoken to each other.

Now that _that_ was settled, you ducked down a bit to go through your bag. You were halfway tempted to just lie down and go to sleep like Loki apparently planned to do, but maybe that shower was calling your name. You kept a little bag of toiletries in your go-bag for situations just like this one. You found it, and dug out something to sleep in, and headed for the shower. 

It was fine. The water was hot, and the tub was (relatively) clean. No obvious signs that it had ever been used to dissolve a body in acid, at least. You got through your shower as quickly as you could, partly because you were exhausted and partly because you didn’t really want to use up all the hot water in case Loki was hoping to shower. That was laughable. He was probably already dead asleep. You’d never really taken the time to wonder how much sleep Asgardians needed compared to humans, but, whatever the amount was, it was definitely more than he’d gotten this week. You lathered, washed, and rinsed, and then dried off as best as you could with the single towel that you allowed yourself. There was another one hanging on the rack as well, but...Loki. Whatever. Your clothes didn’t stick to you when you re-dressed. That was fine.

You stepped out of the bathroom and ducked to put your things back into your bag. You felt eyes on you as you did, and looked up to see Loki watching you from his place on the bed. His face was unreadable, but something in his eyes made you want to look away—but also made it so you couldn’t. You attempted something like a smile and ran your fingers through your hair. “Shower works,” you said. You sounded a little off-balance. It was probably just the lack of sleep.

“I suppose it’d be considerate of me to shower, if we’re going to be sleeping together,” he said slowly, almost reluctantly. He looked away from you, then, and rubbed his hands over his face. It looked like he was trying to rally, trying to gather the strength to peel himself out of bed. You allowed yourself one quick glance at his body before forcing your gaze down onto your bag. It would be silly and unprofessional of you to giggle at his accidental double-entendre. You bit the inside of your cheek.

“It’s up to you.” You stood up and went over to sit on the side of the bed which was apparently to be _yours_. “I can already tell that I’m going to pass out as soon as I lie down. I know you worked your ass off this week; if you just want to go to sleep, more power to you.” It was kind of a nice feeling, though, knowing that he was thinking about how to be considerate to you. Obviously you knew that Loki was a good guy, but it was hard for anyone to care about other people when you were in a state like this.

But he groaned and sat up. He paused for a minute, hunched over the side of the bed, and you recognized the posture from your own time spent in the morning contemplating the risks and benefits of actually getting up in the morning. He grabbed something out of his own bag and disappeared into the bathroom.

Maybe it was kind of nice, lying there and listening to someone else shower. It had been a long time since you’d shared your space with anyone and, as far as contenders went, Loki was probably at the top of the list. You did your best not to imagine him naked, standing under the spray while little rivulets of water made their way down his chest, over his stomach, down his legs. When the water shut off, you certainly did not imagine him drying himself off, rubbing every inch of his body with the towel… Because that was definitely unprofessional, and it wasn’t friendly, either. 

You didn’t have a crush on him, because you were a grown adult and he was a teammate, and responsible grown adults did not develop _crushes_ on coworkers. He was just nice to think about. And imagine. Naked. You hid your face in your pillow and did your best not to think about lice and bedbugs and strangers’ drool spots. But this place was a SHIELD-sanctioned safe house, and the sheets looked blindingly-white and crisp, so you told yourself that this place was _totally_ separate from all those hotel-room exposés.

When Loki finished in the bathroom, you closed your eyes and heard him step out into the room itself. He moved quietly, almost silently, like maybe he thought you might already be sleeping. You had told him that you’d fall asleep right away, after all. You wanted to smile at the thoughtfulness of that. Did the others realize what he was like? They’d come to accept him being on the team, but there was always this sort of air of tension when the others were near him. Maybe that was just in your head. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

You heard him turn the light off, and then he slid back into bed. The mattress was large enough that each of you had plenty of space to yourselves, but you still felt the dip of his weight as he settled in. He sighed. It sounded heavy, even beyond the weight of exhaustion. There was more to him than he showed the rest of the world. He carried things with him that maybe he had no business having to carry. 

“Sweet dreams, Loki.” Maybe you couldn’t help yourself. Things might have been easier if you’d just pretended to legitimately be asleep, but that felt wrong to you. He didn’t twitch at the sound of your voice; maybe he’d already known that you were awake. That made you a little more glad that you’d spoken at all. 

He didn’t respond, though, and eventually you felt yourself drifting off.

In the morning, before you’d even opened your eyes, your body wanted you to jump out of bed. You distinctly remembered falling asleep on your side, facing away from Loki’s side, but...you weren’t there anymore. At some point during the night, you’d crept your way towards the middle of the bed, and now his arms were around you. Fuck. 

You didn’t let yourself move. Maybe he’d wake up first and save both of you by rolling away onto his side of the bed. Unless you were over farther than you thought and he had actually been on his side of the bed this whole time, while you rolled closer and closer and got into his space. You clenched your eyes shut a little tighter. 

Right now, in the privacy of your own mind, you couldn’t ignore how nice he felt. He was pressed to your back, and his knees fit perfectly in the bend behind your own. He felt solid. Grounded. Maybe that was a silly thing to think about Loki, the God of Mischief, but you couldn’t deny the reality of what you felt. His arm rested along your waist, and his hand sort of curled around your stomach like he made the active choice to hold you like that, instead of the two of you simply ending up in this position. His head must have been close to yours, because you could feel his breath ruffling your hair and tickling your shoulder. You listened carefully for a little while, but he just...kept breathing. He was still asleep, still resting comfortably even though you’d clearly encroached upon his personal space. Well. Good. He deserved to rest for a while.

Maybe you took a little too much pleasure in lying there with him. You did your absolute best not to move around too much, even though your body felt like it was aching to explore more of this feeling. His stomach moved with his breaths, almost imperceptibly, but you relished the feeling. This was so intimate. Maybe it was a little presumptuous to think of him as a friend—or, more accurately, to think of yourself as _his_ friend—but there was so much comfort in this. 

It’d been a long time since anyone had held you like this. The last time was...well, it was well before you’d moved into the Tower. No, your nights were spent alone. And that was fine. It was dumb to get attached to a civilian. They’d never really understand what it was that you were trying to do, and most of the time you couldn’t even tell them. And it was dumb to fantasize about doing this regularly with a team member, because that’s how people got killed. But you were here, like this, right now, and maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do your best to commit this to memory for all those other long, lonely nights. 

Loki’s hand twitched against your stomach, making you flinch as well. Rather than waking him up, though, your overblown reaction just made him tighten his arm around you. You allowed yourself to think that maybe his sleeping form was trying to comfort yours. Your chest tightened. Again with that compassion. The others didn’t know this side of him. If they did, maybe that tension would lessen. 

He yawned quietly, and the sound made you want to shiver. His breath was warm. But...could people yawn in their sleep? The answer came only moments later, when you felt him move against you, which was confusing until you realized that he was stretching his body. He was waking up. Or he was already awake? When he’d finished stretching, he wrapped his arm around your belly again and gave you another squeeze. You tried not to hold your breath.

“You had a nightmare,” he murmured. His mouth was so close to your ear that he barely had to speak above a whisper. But he knew that you were awake. Everything had shifted so suddenly, but he was still touching you. “Or I thought you were. You were making sounds in your sleep. I was going to wake you, but you seemed to calm when I touched you. I hope this wasn’t...too forward.”

You didn’t remember dreaming about anything last night. That wasn’t out of the ordinary, though: sometimes you woke up in the dark with your heart racing, but you couldn’t remember what had scared you. You hid your face in your hands but still couldn’t bring yourself to pull away from him. 

“It’s okay.” Your voice was barely more than a whisper, too, but you didn’t trust yourself to speak any louder. How much would he be able to tell just from the way your voice would tremble? “I’m sorry I woke you.”

He didn’t respond for a long time. He did lift his arm a little, but it was apparently only so that he could trace the curve of your waist. His fingers were thoughtful. He touched you as one might touch a worry stone, some smooth rock in their pocket that drew their fingers to distract them from anxious thoughts. “I haven’t slept so well in a long time.”

It took a moment for you to make sense of his words. They were so far beyond what you might have expected him to say, plus there was the fact that he was still touching you like it was nothing? But when you did finally figure out what he was saying, you allowed yourself a tiny smile, a secret smile. The truth was irrefutable. You took a chance, pressing yourself backwards just enough so that you could feel him a little more solidly, and then you raised your hand to allow it to rest on the back of his. He wasn’t pulling away. He wasn’t flinching or drawing in a breath like he needed to tell you to knock it off. You laced your fingers through his and squeezed his hand, and he only squeezed it back in response.

“Me too.” 

You heard him laugh, quietly, more like just a sharp exhale of breath through his nose. But you knew it was a laugh because you could feel it. Though his smiles—genuine smiles, not smirks—were rare, you knew that they lit up the room. And you could feel it. And it made you smile too.

This felt like...something. The start of something. But you didn’t try to overanalyze it, because...maybe that wasn’t the point. You just closed your eyes again and soaked in the feeling of Loki and the way that it felt to be in his arms.

He was still holding you.


End file.
